The last day of DunDraCon is a time to wind down and pack up. Although there are games still playing, I never seem to sign up for any games on Monday. The day starts off early, with the traditional Monday buffet breakfast (and even though most people only get one serving, everybody still gets the buffet -- such is tradition). Having only gotten four hours of sleep, I'm pretty tired, but Eric has to man his booth at 09:30 so we (Eric, Sweet, Big and Little Chris, and I) eat at 08:30.

This year they didn't have scrambled eggs, a real disappointment. You can get an omelet made while you wait, but there are only two burners and it does take a couple of minutes so I much prefer the scrambled eggs. Instead they had rolled pancakes with apple filling. They still had the usual bacon and sausage and potatoes and hash browns (though the hash browns run out quickly), as well as assorted cereals and fruits and nuts for the vegeterians. I was the only one to get a second helping (and I ate the rest of Big Chris' omelet since I really wanted eggs) but I wasn't feeling too well so I didn't finish. The waiters kept refilling the orange juice as fast as we could drink it, which made for a bit of comedy.

Little Chris and I went upstairs and went to sleep. A couple more hours of sleep helped a bit. Then we packed and checked the room and moved our stuff to the car. Then we all went to see Eric, where Chris got me to buy him a set of Apples to Apples (an excellent game). We talked and hung around until the dealer room closed. Then we helped pack up the place. Put stuff into boxes, then cart them over to the moving van. It's a nice, relaxing thing to do and it helps bring closure to the whole con. I didn't do much work this time, I'm just getting way out of shape. We were done by 16:00 and Eric left with Big Chris.

Dave dropped off the mini-fridge, which we didn't use at all. Chris went to sleep while I watched tv. I woke him up after a couple of hours so he could work on his homework. So he's taking a C class and his assignment is to write a program, using subroutines, that runs this math algorithm. Lots of syntax errors and usage errors and such, nothing that I don't do on a daily basis. Once it did compile it didn't run, so I tried to instill in him the importance of putting in print statements in the code so that you can tell what's going on. The kid also doesn't know how to use Emacs, so I suggested that he learn so he can do the simple things like having split screens and cut and paste and page scrolling.

Then he had math homework to do. He had this workbook on series, read a section then do the problems. After a couple of hours he had only done a dozen pages. I made him dinner and then he continued working until we left at about midnight. A quiet drive to Davis, during which he got some sleep, then I dropped him off to his messy dorm room. And that's the end of DunDraCon.

So what did I like? The video games were great, eating out and the meals were good too. Just being able to relax and not worry about television or work or anything else. The drinking was ok, the conversation that went with it was great. The seminars were interesting. What didn't I like? The general con- goers are starting to turn me off. Getting up early sucks, at least next year Eric is going to have an employee work on Monday so we can eat the Monday breakfast later.

I don't go to DunDraCon to game. For me it's just a nice time to spend with friends. I don't game to meet people, I don't game for the sake of the game. It's just an activity to do with friends, so going to a con to play games with a bunch of strangers is not appealing to me anymore. The whole con atmosphere this year was just not that interesting.

This is the year that I've decided to go to GenCon, near Milwaukee. Eric and Shannon will be there, both flying over. Sweet (if he can go) and I will do the cross-country drive, this time we'll try it his way and drive drive drive. My brother Chris may go. Other people are interested but we'll see if they can make the commitment, though Donald may not be able to go because his brother Mark is getting married in August. Maybe we can get Billy to go too.